>>1136806There are swathes of empty land as large as any Scandanavian country in the US where you can do whatever you want. OP is talking about some state park in an urban area, where they have rules mostly to keep homeless people out.
For perspective there are 294,000 square miles of National Forest in the US. In the National Forest you can do whatever you want, dispersed camp anywhere, shoot guns as long as it isn't over a road, hunt, etc. Finland and Sweden but together as a whole are 302,000 square miles. So imagine all of Finland and Sweden being completely devoid of even a single town and only being protected outdoors with forest roads. That's how empty the US is ONLY counting National Forest. If you add in National Monument (similar freedom except mineral rights), BLM land (totally free but normally barren), it's significantly larger than any two scandanavian countries combined. When you hear stories like OPs it's State Parks and National Parks, typically much more restrictive since they are either closer to population centers or extremely busy.
